The present invention relates to the generation of monoclonal antibodies and their use in identifying or characterizing human malignant melanoma antigens. This is a useful diagnostic tool in the detection of human malignant melanoma as well as the study of the nature of human malignant melanoma. Immunofluorescent or enzymatic tagging agents can be bound to the highly specific antibodies provided by this invention, using normal procedures, as required for indexing methods. Cytotoxic agents can also be bound to the highly specific antibodies to produce so called "magic bullet" type therapeutic agents which selectively destroy the cells with which the specific antibody binds.
Other investigators have studied melanoma including Koprowski, et. al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 75, 3405-3409 (1978); Yeh, et al. (proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 76, 2927-2931 (1979) and Woodbury et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 77, 2183-2187 (1980). (The work of the present invention has also been published and is available in the same Journal i.e. Dippold et al. Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci. (1980) 77: 6614-6118 and is hereby incorporated by reference. Of these, the p97 melanoma surface antigen described by Woodbury et al may be related to the gp 95 antigen identified by 6 of the monoclonal antibodies of the invention.